One thing you might not realize from the headlines here is that I list them here in a slightly modified form: especially on Digg, it is customary to add to the end of the title something like “view!” or “watch!”, or, in the case of audio, “listen!”. In Reddit, images are often indicated with their title ending with “PIC” or “IMAGE” or something similar.

I suspect this practice has a strong influence on what gets to the front page. A picture is worth 1000 words, or so it is said – in any case, it’s much faster to “consume” a single image than a 1000-word article, and consequently, it’s assumed to be easier for an image to get votes than – especially a long – article. Which is what is likely to be behind yesterday’s leading article on both Digg and Reddit. The topic itself (“elitism”) is relatively old and has not much currency at the moment in the mainstream media.

Digg:

Which one is the elitist again? (private user via Photobucket) / 6941 diggs